The Confederation and the Constitution

1
Chapter 9

• The Confederation and the Constitution

2
The Verdict of the People (detail)

• This election-day crowd exudes the exuberant
  spirit of the era of Andrew Jackson, when the
  advent of universal white male suffrage made the
  United States the modern worlds first mass
  participatory democracy. Yet the black man with
  the wheelbarrow, literally pushing his way into
  the painting, is a pointed reminder that the
  curse of slavery still blighted this happy scene.

3
Women Weavers at Work(detail)

• These simple cotton looms heralded the dawn of
  the Industrial Revolution, which transformed the
  lives of Americans even more radically than the
  events of 1776.

4
Elizabeth Mumbet Freeman (ca. 17441829), by
Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick, 1811

• In 1781, having overheard Revolutionary-era talk
  about the rights of man, Mumbet sued her
  Massachusetts master for her freedom from
  slavery. She won her suit and lived the rest of
  her life as a paid domestic servant in the home
  of the lawyer who had pleaded her case.

5
Copley Family Portrait, ca. 17761777
6
Western Merchants Negotiating for Tea in Hong
Kong, ca. 1800

• Yankee merchants and shippers figured prominently
  in the booming trade with China in the late
  eighteenth century. Among the American
  entrepreneurs who prospered in the China trade
  was Warren Delano, ancestor of President Franklin
  Delano Roosevelt.

7
Western Land Cessions to the United States,
17821802
8
Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 1776

• Originally built in the 1730s as a meeting place
  for the Pennsylvania colonial assembly, this
  building witnessed much history here Washington
  was given command of the Continental Army, the
  Declaration of Independence was signed, and the
  Constitution was hammered out. The building began
  to be called Independence Hall in the 1820s and
  is today a major tourist destination in
  Philadelphia.

9
Surveying the Old Northwest under the Land
Ordinance of 1785

• Sections of a township under the Land Ordinance
  of 1785.

10
Main Centers of Spanish and British Influence
After 1783

• This map shows graphically that the United States
  in 1783 achieved complete in dependence in name
  only, particularly in the area west of the
  Appalachian Mountains. Not until twenty years had
  passed did the new Republic, with the purchase of
  Louisiana from France in 1803, eliminate foreign
  influence from the east bank of the Mississippi
  River. Much of Florida remained in Spanish hands
  until the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819.

11
Debtors Protest, 1787

• This drawing done on the eve of the writing of
  the U.S. Constitution features a farmer with a
  plow, a rake, and a bottle complaining, Takes
  all to pay taxes. The discontent of debt-rich
  and currency-poor farmers alarmed republican
  leaders and helped persuade them that the
  Articles of Confederation needed to be replaced
  with a new constitution.

12
Rising Sun Symbol at the Top of Washingtons Chair

• This brass sun adorned the chair in which George
  Washington sat during the Constitutional
  Convention. Pondering the symbol, Benjamin
  Franklin observed, I have the happiness to know
  it is a rising and not a setting sun.

13
Signing of the Constitution of the United States,
1787

• George Washington presided from the dais as the
  Constitutional Conventions president. At a table
  in the front row sat James Madison, later called
  the Father of the Constitution, who recorded the
  proceedings in shorthand. Daily from 10 A.M. to 3
  P.M., from late May through mid-September 1787,
  the fifty-five delegates wrangled over ideas for
  a new federal government.

14
The Struggle over Ratification

• This mottled map shows that federalist support
  tended to cluster around the coastal areas, which
  had enjoyed profitable commerce with the outside
  world, including the export of grain and tobacco.
  Impoverished frontiersmen, suspicious of a
  powerful new central government under the
  Constitution, were generally antifederalists.

15
Banner Paraded by the Society of Pewterers in New
York City, 1788

• This silk banner was carried by members of the
  Society of Pewterers in a parade in New York
  City, on July 23, 1788, to celebrate the
  impending ratification of the United States
  Constitution by New York State. The enthusiasm of
  these craftsmen for the Constitution confirms
  that not all federalists were well-to-do.

16
The First Coin Authorized by Congress, 1787

• The Fugio cent was minted by a private company
  and remained in circulation until the 1850s. The
  word Fugio (I fly) and the sundial show that
  time flies Mind Your Business urges diligence.

17
A Triumphant Cartoon

• This cartoon appeared in the Massachusetts
  Centinel on August 2, 1788. Note the two
  laggards, especially the sorry condition of Rhode
  Island.